Benoît Vermeulen

Benoît Vermeulen

Finalist, 2013

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Biography

Benoît Vermeulen has devoted his extraordinary talents to far more than mere directing: he quite simply conceives and writes his productions for adolescents with such verve, passion and commitment to their needs and concerns that he has inspired whole new audiences with the power of theatre and its ability to rally the young. Inventive, original, and most of all, respectful of what he calls “the mystery of adolescence,” this Montréal director, through his company Le Théâtre Clou, has made a name for himself in many countries of the world.

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Alexander MacSween

Alexander MacSween

Finalist, 2018

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Biography

Alexander MacSween is a Montreal-based sound designer, composer and musician. He has worked with Alberta Theatre Projects, Marie Brassard, Daniel Brooks, Brigitte Haentjens, François Girard, Robert Lepage, Necessary Angel, Le Nouveau Théâtre Experimental and the Stratford Festival, where he recently completed his sixth season. Alexander also teaches workshops in live sound processing for the performing arts and works regularly as a design coach in both language sections of the National Theatre School of Canada. He is the recipient of numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and Le Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec. He has won the Prix Gascon-Roux for outstanding music and sound design and has been twice nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award in that same category. Upcoming projects include Embrasse and Les Reines at Le Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, La Brèche at Espace Go, Les Morts, with Le Nouveau Théâtre Experimental and a tour of Marie Brassard’s most recent production, Violence, in which Alexander performs live his original score.

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Martin Bellemare

Martin Bellemare

Finalist, 2020

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Biography

A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s writing program, Martin Bellemare was awarded the 2009 Gratien Gélinas Prize for Le Chant de Georges Boivin. La Liberté was presented at La Rubrique (Jonquière) in 2013 and in Montreal in 2015, and was scheduled to be staged in Ottawa in 2020. Maître Karim la perdrix (2018 Prix SACD de la dramaturgie francophone, awarded by the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques) will premiere at the Théâtre des Capucins in Luxembourg in 2021. Moule Robert (CNL Scholarship, shortlisted for the 2017 Prix SACD de la dramaturgie francophone and the 2018 Michel Tremblay Prize) was produced simultaneously at La Rubrique and at the POCHE/ GVE in Geneva, then at the Théâtre de Belleville in Paris. Martin is a four-time recipient of the Aide à la création grant from the Centre national du Théâtre/ARTCENA in Paris, and two of his plays are included in the repertoire of the Comédie-Française. Two of his plays for young audiences, Un château sur le dosand Des pieds et des mains, which was first produced at the NAC, have toured in Canada and internationally. In 2019, Extraordinaire et mystérieux and Charlie et le djingpouite were produced, and Cœur minéral (Governor General’s Literary Awards, Winner 2020) premiered at the Francophonies in Limoges. The latter play was scheduled for a Montreal production in 2020.

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Bretta Gerecke

Bretta Gerecke

Finalist, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2015

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Biography

Bretta Gerecke is a set, costume and lighting designer who is based in Edmonton and London and works internationally. She is the resident designer at Catalyst Theatre where she has designed 16 world premieres which have toured globally including New York, London, Edinburgh and Toronto. Some recent productions include: Allavita (Cirque du Soleil) The Diary of Anne Frank (Stratford Festival), Alice Through the Looking Glass (Stratford Festival), The Magic Flute (Edmonton Opera) and Elephant Wake(Catalyst Theatre).

She is the recipient of over twenty five awards for Set, Lighting and Costume Design; The Enbridge Award for Best Emerging Artist; The Global Women of Vision Award; and Edmonton’s Top 40 Under 40. She has recently illustrated her first children’s book, and she is representing Canada this year in Prague at the Scenography Quadrennial and in Moscow for the exhibit Costume at the Turn of the Century 1990–2015. Bretta designed a summer home on Devil’s Lake, Alberta, is a marathon runner and continues her work as an Archaeological Illustrator. She has a Bachelor degree in Interior Design and a Masters degree in Fine Arts Theatre Design.

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Colleen Murphy

Colleen Murphy

Finalist, 2008, 2014

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Biography

Murphy’s tough, hard-hitting plays pull back the curtain on disturbing subjects that we often don’t want to look at. But her stories are told in an intimate setting through deeply human characters. The December Man (L’homme de décembre) is driven by the Montreal Massacre, and her recent play Pig Girl was inspired by the murders of the missing women in Vancouver.

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Ross Manson

Ross Manson

Finalist, 2010, 2016

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Biography

Ross Manson is an award-winning director and the founding artistic director of Volcano, an independent theatre company based in Toronto. Volcano is mandated to cross borders of all kinds in its work: disciplinary, cultural, and geographic. Over the past 20 years, Ross has directed and/or co-created shows that have toured around the world, and won or been nominated for over fifty local, national and international awards. He is the founder of the Volcano Conservatory (a professional training program for alternative performance), and co-founder, with Deborah Pearson, of inFORMING CONTENT (an initiative to wed experimental theatre making with expert academic research). His work is featured in the award-winning documentary film Goodness in Rwanda – an exploration of Volcano’s tour to Rwanda of Michael Redhill’s play on genocide (the only Canadian production to ever win the Best of Edinburgh award). Information about the many shows he has worked on can be found at volcano.ca.

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Hannah Moscovitch

Hannah Moscovitch

Finalist, 2014, 2017

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Biography

Hannah is an acclaimed Canadian playwright, librettist and screenwriter. Her work for the stage includes East of Berlin, The Russian Play, Little One, This is War, Infinity, What a Young Wife Ought to Know, Bunny and Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story (with Ben Caplan & Christian Barry). Her plays have been produced across Canada as well as in the United States, Britain, Ireland, Greece, Austria, Germany, Japan and Australia. She’s won multiple awards for her work, including the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, the SummerWorks Performance Festival Prize for Production, the Toronto Critic’s Award for Best New Canadian Play, the Trillium Book Award (Hannah is the only playwright to win the honour in the Award’s twenty nine year history) and the prestigious international Windham-Campbell Prize administered by the Beinecke Library at Yale University. She is a playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto.

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Ravi Jain

Ravi Jain

Finalist, 2016, 2019, 2022

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Biography

Toronto-based stage director Ravi Jain is a multi-award-winning artist known for making politically bold and accessible theatrical experiences in both small indie productions and large theatres. As the founding Artistic Director of Why Not Theatre, Ravi has established himself as an artistic leader for his inventive productions, international producing/collaborations and innovative producing models which are aimed to better support emerging artists to make money from their art. Ravi was shortlisted for the 2016 and 2019 Siminovitch Prize, he was awarded the 2012 Pauline McGibbon Award, the 2016 Canada Council John Hirsch Prize for direction and most recently the Johanna Metcalf Prize. He is a graduate of the two-year program at École internationale Jacques Lecoq.

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Sherry J Yoon

Sherry J Yoon

Finalist, 2022

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Biography

Sherry J Yoon is the Artistic Director of Boca del Lupo in Vancouver, BC. Her passion for creating new performance through collaborative pursuits has enabled her to create work in theatres, intimate performance installations and large spectacle site-specific work. Through co-creation, collaboration, partnerships, and commissions, she has premiered and toured multiple productions. With Boca del Lupo, selected credits include: Fall Away Home, Photog., Expedition, plays2perform@home, Red Phone, and Taste of Empire. Freelance credits include: Arts Club, Richmond Gateway, Bard on the Beach, Vancouver International Children’s Festival, Radix Theatre, and the National Arts Centre. During Sherry’s tenure, the company has received numerous awards, including the Alcan Performing Arts Award, Jessie Richardson awards, and the Critics Choice Award for Innovation. Her productions have toured festivals and venues across Canada, Europe, and Mexico. She is currently working on an interactive installation about climate change.

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Philippe Boutin

Philippe Boutin

Protégé, 2022

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Philippe is a director, actor, and writer. He quickly distinguished himself as a creator to watch with his first ambitious plays: Détruire, nous allons, a large-scale show featuring forty  actors on a football field, and Le Vin Herbé (2016 Prix Opus, Discovery of the Year), an epic opera-theatre piece with a cast of nearly seventy  artists, presented at Arsenal Montreal. In 2018, he founded Empire Panique, the company that produced his most recent creation The Rise of the BlingBling– La Genèse, a mystical pop retelling of the Jesus Christ figure. The show premiered at Usine C, where he had previously been an associate-artist, in May 2022.

Presented by

Acceptance Speech

I would like to thank Marie Brassard for championing my artistic approach and for gifting me this huge dose of courage.

Marie
You who continually seek, risk, try to sketch new ways of doing things, new ways of saying things.

You who have been practicing creation for so many years, playing with form, revealing such curiosity and boldness through your approach, know that it is a truly great privilege to be your protege.

You exemplify success for me, since success, for me, means seeing one’s ideas through to the end. Whatever the pitfalls, you constantly strive to emancipate yourself.

Thank you, Marie. You inspire me and help me to believe in my crazy ideas.

As an artist, I am interested in excess; in epic and multidisciplinary forms.

In 2013, my first play, Détruire, nous allons, was performed on a football field, with about thirty actors.

In 2016, we orchestrated Vin Herbé, a gigantic pop opera-theatre piece, carried by more than 70 artists in a contemporary art museum.

And most recently, in 2022, we created The Rise of the BlingBling, at Usine C; a piece that dives into the heart of a tragic and funny, completely surrealistic reinterpretation of the Jesus figure.

I’ve always viewed my creations as a party.

An ephemeral theatrical celebration, in which delight plays an essential part.

I picture theatre as a sport, a playground, where you have to give your all, passionately, body and soul, leaving nothing behind. And it is important to say that these wildest of dreams, these so-called “unreasonable” shows would never have been possible without the extreme generosity of the artists around me.

I would like to thank all the collaborators, with whom I have been creating for nearly 10 years, from the bottom of my heart.

Without you, there are no projects. Thanks again, friends.

Thanks to my family, for the love. Thank you for always believing in me, for giving me everything. I owe my emancipation to you.

And finally, a huge thanks to the RBC for supporting this prize and emerging artists who are trying to push the boundaries, who dare to try new things, questioning the art form. Your generosity is a big boost.

Long life to you and to your approach, Marie!

Long live the Siminovitch Prize and the people who make it all possible!

Long live the theater!

Thank you! Thank you, have a good evening!

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Joyce Padua

Joyce Padua

Protégé, 2021

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Joyce Padua is a Toronto-based set and costume designer. A BFA graduate of York University, her work has been featured in a broad range of playing spaces—including shows with Factory Theatre, Canadian Stage, Thousand Islands Playhouse, and the Stratford Festival. Joyce was the Canadian representative at the 2019 Beijing International Biennale of the International Stage Design Students’ Work Exchange. Most recently she made her costume design debut at the Shaw Festival with Desire Under the Elms. Joyce is interested and committed to opening doors for diverse theatre makers.

Presented by

Acceptance Speech

Thank you, merçi beaucoup, maraming salamat. There are so many ways I have learned to say thank you, and in this moment, I feel the need to express them all.

I’m overwhelmed, grateful, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t intimidated by this generous award. It’s a feeling I’m familiar with: I wrestle with—and relish in—this joyful trepidation often in our line of work.

A designer once told me, when I shared this feeling, that one of our many privileges in life is that we get to draw and re-draw the lines of our maps.

It is particularly true now, when the world feels liminal, changeable, and also—emergent. The future of our industry is unknown and therefore plentiful. I fell in love with the theatre for its many forks in the road and avenues of exploration, often times taking you in unexpected directions.

Gillian’s phone call was certainly that—unexpected. And Gillian is a radiant guide down this path, a generous mentor and brilliant designer. I cannot express my gratitude more fully than to say that she is exactly who I strive to embody in my own practice and discipline. So, thank you, Gillian.

To Joshua, whom I have the delight of sharing this Protégée title with—thank you for your kindness and support, not only through this experience, but through the course of our knowing each other. Of all of the talented artists I’ve had the pleasure to work with, I’m glad that my travelling companion on this journey happens to be my friend.

To the Siminovitch Prize Board of Directors, and to the RBC Foundation—it is an honour to walk this road you have paved. To my friends and family, thank you for your faith that I will find my way. Thank you to my past teachers and the many artists who took me under their care, and ensured I never strayed so far off the beaten path that I might become lost.

May the maps we have drawn be guides for future travelers. May they see splendours along the way we could never dream. Thank you.

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Ann-Marie Kerr

Ann-Marie Kerr

Finalist, 2022

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Biography

Ann-Marie Kerr is an award-winning theatre artist. Her work has been presented at prestigious theatres and festivals in New York, London, Mumbai, Edinburgh, Sydney, Melbourne, Memphis, Nashville, Cork, and across Canada. Select directing: One Discordant Violin (2b Theatre Co., Théâtre La Licorne (french version), 59E59 St. Theatre, Chester Playhouse, Bus Stop Theatre), #IAmTheCheese (Halifax Theatre for Young People, Eastern Front Theatre), Frequencies (Heist), Concord Floral (Dalhousie University), Secret Life of A Mother (Theatre Centre, Crow’s Theatre), One Discordant Violin (2b Theatre Co., 59E59 St. Theatre), Bed & Breakfast (Soulpepper Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Theatre New Brunswick), Daughter (Theatre Centre, SummerWorks Festival, PuSh Festival, Battersea Arts Festival, Edinburgh Festival), Snake in the Grass (Neptune Theatre), I, Claudia (Globe Theatre, Neptune Theatre), Stranger to Hard Work (Eastern Front Theatre), The Circle (Alberta Theatre Projects), The Debacle (Zuppa Theatre), Invisible Atom (2b Theatre). A graduate of École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq and York University, Ann-Marie is also the former Artistic Associate of Magnetic North Theatre Festival.

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